USB 3.0 Device on a USB 3.1?

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C

Curious User

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May 1, 2014
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Will this speed up the USB 3.0 Device? If you plug it in on a USB 3.1 socket?

I know the speed difference is massive, and I know USB 3.1 is backward compatible. But does it have a benefit?

I'm going to buy a new Motherboard with USB 3.1 as a default socket for USB 3+.. I want to know what will happen if I plug my USB 3.0 device on it..
 
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S


No, it won't. The usb socket only provides the bandwidth. The speed will be based on the usb device itself, it will run what it is rated to run at.
So if you have a usb 3.1 gen flash drive that have a seq read of 350MB/s, it will run the max 350MB/s even if that is not the max speed usb 3.1 gen 1 can do in a gen 1 or 2 socket.
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Suztera

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Usb 3.0 is renamed to usb 3.1 Gen 1. The terms are interchangeable. Only usb 3.1 Gen 2 Type A can offer the higher speeds ( 10Gbps) if the device support it.
As of now, there are no usb 3.1 gen 2 flash drives being produced since it is not needed. There are external SSD drives that can utilise this connection.
 
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C

Curious User

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But will the USB 3.1 Gen 1 speed up when plug into a Gen 2 socket?
 
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Suztera

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No, it won't. The usb socket only provides the bandwidth. The speed will be based on the usb device itself, it will run what it is rated to run at.
So if you have a usb 3.1 gen flash drive that have a seq read of 350MB/s, it will run the max 350MB/s even if that is not the max speed usb 3.1 gen 1 can do in a gen 1 or 2 socket.
 
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C

Curious User

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Thank you.. That make sense..
 
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thewiley1

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Before all you guys rush to give the standard textbook answer, somebody might want to perform some real-world benchmark tests.

Yes, the theoretical max of a 3.0 device is 5 Gbit/s. And, yes, the theoretical max of a 3.1 socket is 10 Gbit/s.
However, the actual throughput in real life is much lower because of a series of overhead factors. Before we can answer these kinds of questions, we have to understand what causes the huge differences between the theoretical max and the practical max.

When the USB 3.0 spec was becoming popular, somebody performed a bunch of tests with 2.0 devices in 3.0 sockets and compared the results to the same 2.0 device in a 2.0 socket. They were surprised to learn that a 2.0 device actually will perform better in a 3.0 socket in many cases, depending on where the bottleneck was occurring in the 2.0 socket.

It would not surprise me if somebody ran the tests and found that a 3.0 device runs a little faster in a 3.1 (Gen 2) socket.

When given a choice, always buy the fastest thing you can afford. Even if you have no need for it now, when you buy that shiny new 20 TB external hard drive in a couple of years, you'll be glad you have the socket to get the best speed out of it.
 
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